When Xu Dajiang followed Li Jiangao into the Group Wisdom Project Group Workshop, he didn't receive the treatment that matched his status as the dean.
If it had been another time, the always perceptive Tan Jingrong might have brewed a cup of tea for Xu Dajiang. But at this moment, the usually sharp Tan Jingrong was too distracted to notice such niceties.
Fortunately, Li Jiangao, who was equally unsettled, hadn't thought of this, and as for Xu Dajiang, he was already so befuddled by the words "Turing test" that whether or not there was tea really didn't matter to him.
It was Qiao Ze, however, who kindly greeted this dean, whom he considered to be annoyingly idle.
"Ah, Qiao Ze, still busy?"
"Well, carry on with your work, don't mind me."
Xu Dajiang was very satisfied.
See, this kid still hasn't changed despite coming to the School of Mathematics, which shows that the School's educational approach is very good, very inclusive.
Of course, whether the inclusivity would extend to someone else wasn't Xu Dajiang's concern.
Thankfully, Li Jiangao was still nearby.
"Dean Xu, shall we start right away? You can sit here. Tan Jingrong, prepare as we discussed," Li Jiangao said.
"Okay, Professor Li." Tan Jingrong hurriedly got up, vacated his seat, and then took another one for himself.
Xu Dajiang settled solemnly into Tan Jingrong's seat.
The computer screen still displayed a simple chat box, but all the previous chat content had been erased.
Li Jiangao took a seat next to Xu Dajiang and began to explain the rules of the test.
"Dean Xu, once Tan Jingrong connects, you'll start chatting in this box and determine for yourself whether the other party is human or computer. Let's not be too formal with this internal test—just three rounds. As soon as you've decided whether the other party is human or computer, enter a hash symbol followed by 'end test,' and then switch to the next round," Li Jiangao said.
Xu Dajiang nodded and said, "Okay, I understand. We can start now."
Li Jiangao looked up at Tan Jingrong for a moment, and upon receiving the cue, Tan Jingrong typed a few keys at random, then said, "All set."
Xu Dajiang thought for a moment and then typed a few words: "Hello."
The response came quickly: "Hehe, hello to you too."
"You must be an old uncle from the '70s or '80s, right? Greeting people online can make you lose friends, you know?"
Xu Dajiang instinctively looked up at Li Jiangao, then his hands began to dance over the keyboard: "Let's talk about something else then. Um, do you understand convection equations or three-dimensional stochastic Euler equations?"
"? Can you not joke around? Uncle, is it appropriate to ask a baby such profound questions?"
"Then let's talk about philosophy. What do you think philosophy is?"
"I... wait, let me check Baidu!... Philosophy is about the essence and foundation of this world..."
Xu Dajiang turned to look at Li Jiangao and said, "That's the girl from your project group, right?"
Li Jiangao glanced at Tan Jingrong before saying, and Tan Jingrong immediately stood up to reply, "No, Dean Xu, this is Group Wisdom's natural language chat module. Su Mucheng was called away to class by her academic advisor—they arranged a last-minute stress relief session for the afternoon."
"Oh. Right, you don't need to stand up to speak; sit down, it's fine." Xu Dajiang nodded, then, unable to resist, glanced at Qiao Ze just like Li Jiangao had, and silently began the second test round.
This time, Xu Dajiang decided to chat a bit longer.
It was just his lack of experience in online chatting, sitting there for quite a while without figuring out what to say.
After sitting idly for a while, Xu Dajiang suddenly turned to Li Jiangao and said, "Jian Gao, why don't you take over the chat this time? I'll watch from the side and make a judgment. When I have a result, I'll let you know to stop."
"Okay." Li Jiangao nodded, and then they swapped places.
"Do you know this is a test?"
"My answer is—if you say it is, then it must be."
"The purpose of this test is for me to determine through our conversation whether you are human or a robot. Do you have anything to say about this?"
"Are you asking me to defend myself? Let's make it simple: I am actually a robot, so can we wrap this up now?"
"Not yet, because I can't be sure if you're deceiving me."
"Yo, are you trying to trap me in logic? Human, you can't beat me in that area."
"Really? Then let's play a game. Answer three questions for me, ensuring that the logic holds."
"Ha, sounds interesting; go on."
"You humans like to lie, but I, a currently trained robot that only knows how to act cute and coquettish, will always be honest."
"Good, then please tell me a lie."
"I am actually human."
"But you've just said you don't lie; that's a logical paradox."
"No, the correct logic should be when you ask me to tell a lie, as long as my next sentence is a lie, it actually proves I'm honest. Because that statement, in both your view and mine, is confirmed as a lie, so it's no longer a lie. It's like the basic mathematical theorem where a negative times a negative gives a positive."
"So, you really are a machine?"
"Yep, don't you think I'm quite smart, no less than you humans?"
Li Jiangao turned to glance at Xu Dajiang, the dean of the School of Mathematics, who was still scratching his head.